Caris LeVert, who shouldered a lot of the load as Michigan carved its way into the Elite Eight last season, revealed recently that he played games with a fractured foot.

The junior guard averaged nearly 34 minutes and almost 10 points per game in the tournament before Kentucky bounced the Wolverines out, and he did so with varying degrees of pain in one of his feet.

Caris LeVert (AP Photo)

“It wasn’t really nagging me like that, it was kind of just a bother a little bit," LeVert told MLive. "A lot of times, after the games, I’d feel it hurting a little bit. But it wasn’t hurting me to the point where I couldn’t play."

Former teammate Nik Stauskas said LeVert mentioned some discomfort from time to time but did his best to manage it.

"He had mentioned that his foot bothered him at times, but it was never really an issue. Then he said (after) the Kentucky game, the very last game of the season, that it really bothered him again. Then obviously when the season ended, he wanted to get it checked out and it ended up being a stress fracture."

LeVert underwent surgery on May 12 to repair the stress fracture in his foot and is just now beginning to return to basketball activities. His biggest challenge will be conditioning and getting back to game-ready after 16 weeks on the sidelines.